Increasing the Advertising Literacy of Primary School Children in Ireland: Findings from a Pilot RCT

Abstract

This study reports the effect of four lessons of a recently developed Irish media literacy teaching intervention on the advertising literacy of children aged 8-11. Covariates of age and gender were also considered. Alongside this, a process evaluation was completed. The results of this pilot RCT show that children aged between 8 and 11 are capable of increasing their knowledge regarding the persuasive intent and the selling intent of marketing messages. The intervention had a statistically significant positive impact on advertising literacy. This study finds no evidence to suggest that advertising literacy is gendered. Qualitative discussions indicate that the teaching materials were well received by both teachers and children. The need for regular advertising literacy lessons for children was unearthed. The challenge of attempting to include more content in an increasingly crowded curriculum was cited as the main barrier to delivering regular media literacy lessons. Recommendations for increased media literacy education in primary school are discussed. These findings are of interest to parties including educators, parents, policy makers and marketers.